


A Very Distant Other Side

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 23:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20714678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Would love to see something with Dr. Facilier and Pitch. They’re very similar in style, they’ve both got that seductive villainy to them - it’d be awesome.One idea is that Facilier started out as Pitch’s apprentice/acquaintance of sorts, one of the few adults that still believed in the consuming beauty of fear, and helps Pitch out occasionally by sowing chaos.Or maybe Pitch (before or after ROTG) hears about this upstart calling himself the Shadow Man, and decides to pay him a visit. Eventually, they make a little deal that turns out to be beneficial to them both. When Facilier can’t make good on his promises, the Nightmares/Friends on the Other Side drag him down to Pitch’s lair for Pitch to have his way with.Both of these are only ideas, although the latter is a more developed one...[cut for length]"Zero shippiness in my fill. Anyway, before RotG, with powers broken, Pitch doesn’t have a lot to do except spy on and mess with people. He goes to see if the person calling himself the Shadow Man is living up to such a name, and finds out that his “friends” are more unusual than he could ever have expected.





	A Very Distant Other Side

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 1/23/2016.
> 
> Here's the rest of the prompt: "...In any case, if the filler has a better idea, go for it; largely I just want to see these two guys interact, possibly try to one-up each other, and be intrigued when, well, neither gets the reaction he’s expecting
> 
> I only ask that there’s no noncon, please. Dubcon I’m okay with if you feel it fits, but please keep it to a minimum. Other than that, go to town!"

The problem with having one’s power broken, Pitch mused, was that it so often left one with very little to do. And the _reason_ this was a problem was that, without any clear purpose—for example: be the governor of fear throughout the world—he had much more time to poke around in situations that would otherwise not have attracted his interest, meddle with things that did not otherwise concern him, and thus attract the further attention of the Guardians. Unfortunately, they simply wouldn’t listen when he explained that he was getting into things he shouldn’t because he had been utterly prevented from doing anything he should be doing. Sometimes they refused to believe that there _was_ something he should be doing, but Pitch had gotten enough irritatingly cryptic messages from the Moon to know that he had some sort of purpose—even if the Moon didn’t seem to be inclined to tell him what it was or make sure that he was doing it.  
  
Anyway. The immediate problem was still boredom. Pitch lay on his back in his globe, feet resting against central Asia, mentally flicking through the shadows of the world and looking for anything, anything of interest.  
  
By which he mostly meant any of the names he had ever been called.  
  
He found something to pause at somewhere in North America. A man had started calling himself “The Shadow Man”. Curious. Pitch decided to go see if this Shadow Man was using his name in a way he liked.  
  


* * *

  
  
Pitch watched the man with more curiosity than he expected to. He would have shadowed him literally, too, save that he _couldn’t_. This was part of what held his interest. _This_ man’s—Dr. Facilier’s—shadow was already occupied. This was extraordinarily rare. Pitch had seen many humans attempting to meddle with powers and personages they didn’t understand, but in most cases, these powers or personages refused to answer. Not so, in Dr. Facilier’s case. He did indeed have friends from the other side living in his shadow and helping him work his magic.  
  
As Pitch observed him—and them—over the course of several days, though, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Dr. Facilier might have benefitted from the touch of fear that Pitch could have provided him with. For one thing, the friends on the other side did not appear to be anyone or anything that Pitch had seen before. Whatever other side they were from, it wasn’t one he was familiar with. They weren’t who Dr. Facilier thought they were, either, Pitch determined through some careful eavesdropping. And they didn’t recognize Pitch at all. He hadn’t expected them to be friendly with him, but he had expected them to know who he was. Every spirit on Earth knew, and even if it was their first time seeing him, they always figured it out within a moment or two—this was true even with his powers broken.  
  
The only conclusion that he could draw was that Dr. Facilier’s friends were entirely unearthly. That probably wasn’t going to be good for the Shadow Man, sooner or later. A lot of earthly beings like the ones Dr. Facilier thought they were enjoyed making deals for the sake of the deal itself. It was all part of a long game for them. In this case? Pitch guessed that these friends played only to win.  
  
Pitch decided that he’d stick around and see if he was right. After all, the Shadow Man was bound to experience quite a lot of fear when it all went south, and the friends probably wouldn’t be interested in collecting it.


End file.
